AU: Pomegranate growers consider future
With no clear reason why trees are dying across the country, some Riverina producers aren't sure if the crop is worth pursuing.
Scott Vaessen has been growing the trees at Griffith for the last few years and says it's a pity because the fruit has plenty of potential.
"I've only got the one variety called parfianka, which at the time, looked to be the variety of choice because it was a sweeter juice, an aril product."
"Production wise, we've got issues because we've got this tree death or decline that as yet, hasn't been identified."
"So at the moment, we're largely in limbo at how we progress."
Brian Campbell harvested his first trial crop of pomegranates last month at Goolgowi, about 50 kilometres Northwest of Griffith.
He says when they planted the trees they hadn't heard of the mystery health problems.
"When we first started hearing of it, we kept a close eye on ours and we have been seeing that our trees have been dying too, some of them are."
"We're just going to see what happens next spring when they come out of dormancy."
Source: abc.net.au